US cities dialogue on race.

Hope in the Cities (HIC), based in Richmond, Virginia, aims to `build partnerships for racial reconciliation'. When, in 1997, President Clinton announced that his administration would promote honest conversations across America `to lift the burden of race', HIC was one of the organizations called in to assist the process. HIC trains dialogue facilitators and leaders of interracial coalitions in several US cities (see FAC Oct/Nov 1999). HIC's National Director, Robert Corcoran, reports recent developments:

Thirty-six years ago, the US was riveted by pictures of state troopers attacking voting-rights marchers with dogs and clubs in Selma, Alabama. It was a turning point in the civil rights struggle. But change has been slow to come in Selma. Joe Smitherman, who was mayor at the time of the notorious `Bloody Sunday' events of 1965, remained in office until August 2000 when he was finally unseated by Selma's first black mayor, James Perkins. Last November Perkins was in Richmond to promote a message of healing. He spoke to over 300 people at the fifth annual Metropolitan Richmond Day.

`Hate is an enemy. It is contagious,' said Perkins. `Those who hate expect to be hated. It is as deadly as a bullet. Fear is an enemy. It consumes our existence and causes us not to accept emancipation, it causes us not to embrace freedom and it causes us to run from reconciliation. Comfort is an enemy. We can be comfortable with our anger, our hate, our fear and our distrust.'

According to Perkins, the reconciliation we are looking for is not between races or religions. `The truth and reconciliation we seek is within each individual. We spend too much time trying to check other folks. Check yourselves!' Inspired by the example of South Africa, Perkins' goal is to create a truth and reconciliation commission in Selma.

Virginia State Representative Viola Baskerville responded to Perkins: `We hear so much about the economic divide, but there is a reconciliation divide.' Deeply moved by the speaker, she concluded, `Perhaps two cities with such a tattered, tarnished past can indeed be beacons of hope.'

Earlier 500 people filled every seat at a reception in Dayton, Ohio, launching the city's Dialogue on Race Relations. `When this many gather there is cause for concern and cause for hope,' said Montgomery County Commissioner Vicki Peg. `The numbers indicate there is a concern about this issue but no one gathers like this if there is no hope.'

Judge Walter Rice, co-chair of the initiative, said, `Dayton is the third most segregated city in the nation. The single biggest obstacle [to progress] is our inability to speak with one another.' The turn-out of Dayton citizens indicated that this is about to change. As the lead editorial of the Dayton Daily News put it, `Dayton is ready to bridge racial divides.'

Meanwhile the Richmond Community Foundation, the Jackson Foundation and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation of North Carolina have announced grants totaling $60,000 to support a potentially far-reaching metropolitan dialogue programme led by Hope in the Cities and the Richmond Hill ecumenical retreat centre.

Harold Saunders, Director of International Affairs at the Kettering Foundation, is advising the project. As a member of the Carter administration, Saunders helped broker the Camp David Peace Accords. He was in Richmond last fall to speak to a group of 65 leaders of organizations who will form the steering committee for the project.

A series of 10 48-hour consultations, each involving groups of 20 citizens, started in January and will continue through May. The consultations focus on how the issues of race, economics and jurisdiction separate the region and contribute to the isolation of the city. The goal of the project is to develop a sustained process that leads to change in public policy.